Gorman Family Search

Hi Tasmin, you are back about as far as you can go unless you have Anglican or Protestant lineage and that church have records (they lost about 45% of them in our civil war of 1921), as we rely on church records mainly pre 1864, or 1845 for Protestant marriages, the name Gorman is relatively common, Bouchier is much less so.

To be as far back as you are in Irish records is remarkable, some Catholic churches have records pre 1800 and earlier but it is very few (basically in the 1700s there was laws agains Catholics so records were not kept etc) 

The name Bouchier is according to McLysaghts Surnames of Ireland a name that came to Ireland with the Normans in 1170, to Wexford initially (Normans mainly at that time came from Wales) the name is apparently a variant of the English name Butcher and has variants Boucher; Bossher and Busher and I must say the only one I ever heard was Bouchier, leaving aside Butcher.

There is a broadcaster Philip Boucher Hayes who is on the national radio station, https://www.rte.ie/radio1/drivetime/generic/2019/0321/1037802-philip-bo… there are other photos of him too.

There are a number of Irish and local county Facebook with private groups researching the area using genealogical records and others using DNA, they are all well run as far as I can see and people are trying to be helpful but most people are stuck around the 1830 period, there are land records online but give only the head of the house or owner of the land or tenant etc, there is also a site (subscription) with some free usuage to search surnames and their locations from different records, that is here https://www.johngrenham.com/  the other sites free are the Tithes here, owners/tenants of 1 acre or more but just names http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp and Griffiths Valuation (1848 to 1864) and if you are clever you can actually see the plot on modern maps, http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/ there is some other stuff but it is a leap of faith that your name as seen is the actual person you want it to be, also free online are the civil records post 1864 including deaths but I imagine that it will be neigh impossible to pick our your Gorman or O'Gorman (I live near a place called Gormanston or Gormanstown) 

I see the Four Courts Press have either published or will publish a true story of an assassination or murder in 1883 I think on the boat to South Africa, it is a true story as they are academic publishers. Can be purchased online, I just like to read around what was going on at the time in case you want to. 

The Church Representative Body Library has a list of the available Anglican records if you Google them in Dublin, you should also look at the area library and archive to see if they have anything but the are currently closed but may reopen on the 5th April. You could try an email.

You can view the civil areas of Ireland here, townlands etc but the religious divides may be different so you may not see where you are looking for but I find it helpful to locate an area etc, if the placename you are using is not on it, a Google search will usually find it as it may be a local name rather than the legal name if you will. https://www.townlands.ie/ 

Feel free to revert if you have any follow up, the free civil site is here but church records are very limited at this time. Click on civil and follow the instructions but it is free. https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/

Good Luck

Pat